Here and gone...

Time flies. I feel like I just got here and now I am already leaving. A dentist and another family have come and gone since I've been here, so I should just be grateful that I got to stay 10 days instead of 4 or 5.

Yesterday was a success at Maternidad. We got there at 7:15 and there were already a lot of people there waiting with numbers. We got a number and waited for our turn. The doctor was pretty nice and added in the letter "s" when he spoke which made it immensely easier for me to understand. One letter...amazing. Our time with the doctor took about ten minutes, but the tiny little office we were in had about 30 degree air blowing out which was a much better alternative to tropical island weather and being packed in with tons of other people. Cara and I looked around the room and saw the bed half falling apart and an isolet (where you put babies when transporting or they need extra protection) that was being eaten away by rust. The doctor had a little table where he did his thing. The sharps container was an old Ajax bottle. It's not like that everywhere, but it's like that here. And this is all they have. We got out of there around 10:30-11 and dropped Joslina back off in PM. We went back to Cara's place for lunch and had incredible conversation. About language, God, our gifts and our life experiences that we have learned.

I didn't get very far to finding out about the vaccinations. Maternidad said that we would have to bring the kids five by five to get their shots done. They can't send them with a group because they need to be refrigerated. I'm thinking a cooler would work, but they aren't really budging. So that's one option down, but we do have a couple more that if I had more time, I could have explored. Hopefully, it'll all work out with email.

I always have this internal crisis while I'm here. Mom says that I get really introspective everytime I come down, which can be a wonderful thing since I am usually too busy to see or notice the things I should while I am living life in the states (my words, not hers. She'd say something like that, but with a lot more love). I have new goals in mind for my life back home. Things that need to be done and made into a firm part of my everyday life. Once again, I feel like I am leaving having learned more from my time in the Dominican Republic than I have given back. But God sees the bigger picture, He is able to communicate between our native languages, He is able to reach down and heal things I have no clue how to treat, and He has the ability to protect the little bodies that I can't. Because I can't. I'm not God. I do not know His ways. Yes He gives us knowledge and skills, but we first and fully rely on Him.